To:S. I. GILLERSON

Written:Written on September 25, 1920Published:First published in 1965 inCollected Works, Fifth Ed., Vol. 51.

      Printed from the typewritten copy.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1975,

      Moscow,Volume 44,

      page435b.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

GillersonPrague

Publishat once in the press and inform the Congress
of the Czechoslovak Social-Democratic
Party[1]that Franz
Beneš’s mention of a talk alleged to have taken place with
me on the possibility or impossibility of a proletarian
dictatorship in Czechoslovakia is a lie from beginning to end
and that not only did I never talk with him but I have
never even seen him. It goes without saying that my opinion
of Bela Kun and of the Hungarian Revolution, as quoted
by Beneš, is just as foul a lie.

[1]Thereference is to theThirteenth Congress of the Czechoslovak
Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, held in Prague from
September 25 to 28, 1920. The Congress was preceded by a struggle between
the revolutionary wing in the party—the Marxist Left wing—
and the Right-wing reformist leadership. The Congress was
attended by 321 persons, all supporters of the Left wing. At that
time the party had more than 4,800 functioning organisations
and almost 500,000 members. The Left wing at the Congress took
over the leadership of the party and formed an independent party
entitled the Czechoslovak Social-Democratic Workers’ Party
(Left). It included most of the members of the former
Social-Democratic Party. The Congress condemned the splitting policy
of the Right wing, expressed agreement with the conditions for
affiliation to the Communist International, and instructed the
new Executive Committee to conduct negotiations for joining
the Communist International. The reformist leaders took the
course of splitting the party and in November 1920 held their
own Congress.